Academics of all ranks and disciplines live in fear of "Reviewer 2." This publishing trope refers to the dreaded anonymous peer reviewer who gratuitously disparages your paper, curtly dismisses it, or seems to have not read it at all. These fears are, to an extent, justified — such peer-review stories are not uncommon. As a graduate student, I have received "Reviewer 2"-type reviews. This past June, when I peer-reviewed a paper for the first time, I decided I would try to be different.
The paper at hand attempted to theorize masturbation as a form of violence. I told my wife and my adviser that I was reviewing a strange paper and remember sitting at my desk trying to figure out what to do with it. Strange is not — in and of itself — bad, and simply calling a paper strange is not a review. So I dug in, read the paper, and tried to decipher what was going on. The paper was bad, and I quickly decided on a rejection.
But how to approach writing the rejection? I looked at a rejection I had received. The reviewer had read my paper carefully, offered substantive and detailed critiques, and offered directions I might be able to take the paper. I remembered how much I liked that reviewer, and so decided to take the same approach. I critiqued the paper substantively, while offering potential avenues the authors might be able to pursue. I hoped that, despite the rejection, the author might benefit from the review.
In their article announcing the hoax, the writers used selected quotes from my review to argue that I supported this paper (despite recommending a rejection). This selective use of my comments seemed disingenuous. They were turning my attempt to help the authors of a rejected paper into an indictment of my field and the journal I reviewed for, even though we rejected the paper.
As the initial embarrassment and frustration of reviewing a hoax article has worn off, and through an outpouring of support
on Twitter, I am still glad I chose not to be "Reviewer 2." It is impossible to know who is on the other end of blind peer review, and it is reasonable to assume the person has good intentions, even if the paper is mediocre or worse.
My first reviewing experience has been strange, and, if nothing else, I am moving on confident in my decision to be a critical yet constructive scholar.